Media reports that a BA second-year student was stabbed multiple times on June 1 by a a mob now known as cow vigilantes for not clicking photographs of their protest after they mistook him for a journalist in Gohana town of Haryana’s Sonepat district, according to a Hindustan Times report. The student, Shivam, who is currently struggling for life at a hospital in New Delhi, went to the event with a journalist friend of his and had his friend’s camera in his hand.
As has become a pattern, the Gau Raksha Seva Dal had organised the protest demanding sedition charges against Congress workers in Kerala after they slaughtered a cow in public and held ‘beef fests’ on May 27. The Youth Congress workers allegedly slaughtered the cow to protest the central government’s decision banning sale and purchase of cattle from animal markets for slaughter.
Claiming that they mistook Shivam to be a photographer as he had a camera with him and asked him to take photographs of the protest and them handing a memorandum to district officials. After Shivam reportedly refused to do so, it led to an argument, however, bystanders calmed the protesters.
Bent o0n mob violence, post the protest, the gau rakshaks followed Shivam and stabbed him on his chest and stomach with knives. “He was admitted to a local hospital initially but taken to Delhi because of his condition,” police inspector Ajaib Singh told the media.
A 19-year-old, Mohit who is the main suspect in the case, has been arrested and two more suspects, both relatives of Mohit, are on the run. An “attempt to murder” case has been lodged against the three people and the complaint mentions the accused as members of the cow protection group. It is not yet known whether Mohit belongs to a clearly defined dupremacist outfit.
Typically, despite the fact that the three persons were part of the protest, the gau rakshak group has disowned the trio, saying they were troublemakers who joined the protest, the police inspector said.